eFate: An MMO Story Chapter 93: Eric vs Rob 2

Seeing his opportunity, Eric activated Dashing Cut and rushed forward, covering the distance between them nearly instantly. As he arrived in front of Rob, Eric leaned backwards, entering into a controlled slide as a Water Blade flew overhead.

With a crash, Eric slammed into Rob, bringing his friend toppling down, Whirling around at lightning speed, Eric used the Quickwind Dagger as a weapon, stabbing repeatedly at his friend while he struggled to get his bearings.

As the Quickwind Dagger tore hole after hole in Rob's robes, Rob lashed out, catching Eric unawares with a kick to the gut. Falling backwards, Eric managed to convert his momentum into a somersault, rolling to his feet and launching himself towards Rob once more.

"Kyp is relentless in his pursuit of Hope! He's combining movement skills with low level magic to suppress Hope, preventing him from getting spells off as Kyp cuts him to pieces!" Halfthur shouted excitedly.

"Yes, Kyp's mastery of low level magic is allowing him to get off spells in half the time as Hope. Normally, spells such as Arcane Strike are only slightly faster than Hope's Stone Sphere or Water Blade. Against a normal mage, Hope would still be able to cast a Stone Sphere in the time it takes for Kyp's Arcane Strike to both be cast and traverse the distance between the two mages. This is what Hope was able to do earlier when Kyp was using Wind Dart. Despite Kyp's faster casting time, Hope was still able to get off a spell in response. However, by closing the distance and using the even simpler Arcane Strike, Kyp is managing to interrupt nearly half of Hope's spells. Plus, Hope also has to be wary of Kyp's melee capabilities. Even if he's not charging in at every opportunity, just the threat of them means that Hope has to be on guard, which increases the mental burden he's facing and is forcing him to make even more mistakes," Wavesun analyzed.

"So the reason Kyp closed the distance wasn't to enter into melee range with Hope, but to threaten the possibility that he might, and to allow him to interrupt Hope's spell casts?" Halfthur inquired.

"Exactly. When Kyp judges that he can interrupt a cast, he uses Arcane Strike. When he judges that he can't, he uses Wind Dart and attempts to dodge, either trading evenly with Hope, or hitting him and avoiding the damage all together. If Hope messes up and allows Kyp to interrupt his attacks, Kyp dashes towards him and fights him in melee range. It's a sound strategy," Wavesun explained.

As the announcers discussed Eric's strategy, the battle below was coming to a climax. Drawing back, Rob attempted to put distance between them once more. However, Eric refused to let this happen, sticking to him like a leech as he fired spell after spell towards his friend.

With a shout, Rob brought up both hands, casting runes with each hand as Eric avoided a Water Blade that had been cast diagonally to catch his roll.

Seeing this, Eric cast an Arcane Strike, attempting to disrupt Rob's spellcasting once more, but to no avail. As the violet bolt struck him, Rob completed the spell, the runes glowing brightly as he aimed towards Eric.

Instincts screaming, Eric threw himself backwards, desperately attempting to move as a pair of enormous Stone Spheres manifested in front of Rob.

"Hope dualcasts Enhanced Stone Sphere! I can't believe a Journeyman mage can use this spell!" Halfthur yelled excitedly, bouncing up and down in the announcers booth.

The audience too had moved to the edge of their seats, watching anxiously as they saw the enormous Stone Spheres approach Eric.

With a grim look, Eric stopped moving. The Stone Spheres were too big to dodge. Even if he avoided them, the resulting explosion of shrapnel would be more than enough to wipe out the rest of his healthbar. Thinking quickly, Eric began to draw rune after rune, his athame moving at lightning speed as it drew shapes in the air.

With a shout, Rob cast the Enhanced Stone Spheres, the two spells converging towards Eric's position. As they neared with a couple metres of him, Eric's hands stopped moving, the runes in front of him glowing as he completed his spell.

With the roar of rushing wind, nine Wind Darts blinked into existence around Eric. Pointing them towards the rocks, Eric fired the spell, sending four Wind Darts toward one sphere, and five towards the other.

As the Wind Darts approached the Stone Spheres, they converged, nine Wind Darts meeting two Stone Spheres. With a stage-quaking sound, the Stone Spheres exploded, sending bits of rock flying everywhere like shrapnel. Covering his face with his arms, Eric jumped backwards as he braced for impact.

"Kyp casts nine Wind Darts at once to break up the Stone Spheres! I don't believe it, is this still a fight between two low level mages?!" Halfthur asked, his dumbstruck voice echoing through the arena.

Going silent, the audience watched as Eric flew backwards, propelled by the explosion of wind and rock. Landing heavily on his back, Eric skidded across the stage, his body ragdolling as he rolled more than twenty metres from where he'd stood.

Coming to a halt, Eric went still, his body twitching gently where it lay.

"It looks like both Kyp and Hope are suffering from mana rebound! Who will recover first?

Four percent health left eh? That should be more than enough, Eric thought to himself, as he attempted to get his body to respond. A row of status effects along the bottom of his vision announced the state that his body was currently in, but he ignored them, hauling himself to his feet as he stared balefully towards Rob.

Rob wasn't in a much better state than Eric himself. Although Eric had attempted to put distance between them, the Stone Spheres had exploded only ten metres from where Rob stood. What's more, the blast of wind from Eric's Wind Darts had propelled the majority of the shrapnel back towards him. Combined with the damage that Eric had inflicted upon him earlier in the fight, and Rob's healthbar was blinking red as well.

Raising his hands, Rob attempted to cast a spell, but Eric was too fast. Moving quickly, he drew a Wind Dart, firing the spell directly towards Rob. As Rob's spell completed, a Stone Sphere manifesting in front of him, the Wind Dart slammed into him, depleting the rest of his healthbar and triggering the blue light.

Giving Eric a smile, Rob was whisked away, leaving Eric alone on the stage.

"And Erick 'Kyp' Kystfyr is the winner! After a jawdropping match with his fellow Riptide member, Kyp wins and Sweet 'Hope' Sins is eliminated! Kyp moves on to the top eight where he will fight the winner of the next round between Grott and XXXXX!" Halfthur announced, finally recovering from the shock of what he had just witnessed.

Smiling weakly, Eric waved to the crowd as he left the stage, intent upon finding a healer. This had been the most intense fight he'd had in the entire tournament so far. Even more intense than his fight with Soren. Rob had truly held nothing back, going at him with everything he had. If Eric hadn't had the presence of mind to use Multi-linked Wind Dart to deal with Rob's Enhanced Stone Sphere, then he would've been the one eliminated.

I'm going to have to have a talk with Rob about that, I didn't even know dual-casting was possible, let alone enhancing a spell like that, Eric thought as he entered the tunnel. Headed for the viewer's lounge where he would find a healer, and watch Grott's match, in that order.

Chapter end